Paris awards last of Line 15 South contracts 13 Jul 2017

Armand van Wijck, TunnelTalk Europe correspondent

By the start of this month, the last two of eight civil engineering contracts for the Grand Paris Express Line 15 South were awarded by owner Societe du Grand Paris. As the first construction phase of the Le Grand Paris project, the total value of civil contracts on this new 33km underground route of the Paris Metro, linking Pont-de-Sèvres to Noisy-Champs (Fig 1), is €3.7 billion.

By the end of this year (2017), 41 construction sites will have been established along the 33km route, 4,000 people will be working on this first new metro line of Paris Grand Express programme, and the first of the 10 TBMs to be used on Line 15 South will have started excavation from the Champigny Station working acces, explained Philippe Yvin, Director of Société du Grand Paris. “The Grand Paris project is also a growth-enhancing project with 20% in each contract required to ensure involvement of small and medium enterprises.”

Also in July, Supervisory Board of the Société du Grand Paris secured a second €1 billion loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB). Faced with annual financing needs, which will reach €2 billion per year by 2018, the company is pursuing its policy of seeking funding from additional institutional partners to add to the €1 billion loan agreed with the Caisse des Dépots savings fund in July 2015 and a similar contract for another €1 billion with the EIB secured in April 2016.

Fig 1. Route of the Grand Paris Line 15 South project

The last two contracts awarded and all other contracts on the Line 15 South project and their dates of award are:

Package 8 (July 2017):

Scope: Civil works for the Noisy-Champs underground interchange station that will connect Metro Lines 15, 16 and 11 and the city’s RER A regional express line. A 370m-long cut-and-cover tunnel in front of the station is included in the contract to accommodate local traffic.

Package 6 (April 2017):

Scope: 7.2km of bored tunnel between Créteil l'Échat and Bry-Villiers-Champigny Stations using two TBMs launched from both ends of the section and included is construction of the Saint-Maur-Créteil, Champigny Center and Bry-Villiers-Champigny Stations.

Contractor: A JV of Eiffage Génie Civil (leader) and Razel-Bec

Award value: €795 million

Package 5 (February 2017):

Scope: An 8km-long x 8.7m diameter bored tunnel between Issy-Vanves-Clamart and Villejuif-Louis-Aragon Stations employing two TBMs. Also included is construction of five stations – Châtillon-Montrouge, Bagneux, Arcueil-Cachan, Villejuif Institut Gustave-Roussy and Villejuif Louis-Aragon – and a TBM launch shaft.

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